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If you have a certain medical condition or if you have reached a particular age, you might start thinking about monitoring your blood pressure at home yourself. Yes, you can always go to the GP to have it done, but that costs time (and in most countries, money) which you might not have. So, what about monitoring your blood pressure at home?

How accurate are blood pressure monitors for home use? The fact is that contemporary monitors are very accurate, yet you ought to still continue regular visits to your medical doctor, who will verify the findings of your home monitor.

If your doctor has determined that you have high blood pressure (hypertension), he or she will probably recommend lifestyle alterations or / and medication. It is very problematic to institute lifestyle alterations, so if you do, monitoring your hypertension at home and seeing reductions can be very satisfying, but it can also work the other way around if the changes do not seem to be having any effect.

When you are deciding which home blood pressure monitor to buy, there are two basic options: the aneroid and digital monitors. The digital monitors have either an automatic or a hand-pumpable cuff.

The other sorts are finger or wrist monitors, yet these ought to be avoided as they give fairly erratic or inaccurate readings and they are a lot dearer as well. If you do purchase one of these monitors, take it with you to your medical doctor’s and compare its performance against a sphygmomanometer, which is considered the gold standard of blood pressure monitors.

So, let us take for granted, that you purchase a proper monitor with a cuff, the first thing to do to make certain maximum accuracy is to get a cuff that fits you properly. This is not usually difficult, yet if you are big or small, the instruments within the cuff might not be able to give an accurate reading.

If you want an accurate reading, you ought to wait at least 45 minutes after drinking caffeine before taking a reading. In fact, you ought to sit quietly for at least ten minutes, before taking any reading. Other precautions are to go to the bathroom first, not to have smoked or to have taken any alcohol recently. In addition, strap the cuff at least an inch above the crease of your elbow.

You will be hoping for a reading below 120/80 which is considered ‘normal’. Readings between normal and 140/90 point toward prehypertension and mean that you need to take some action to escape entering ‘Stage One Hypertension’, which is anything over this reading.

Modern home digital monitors over a certain cost are highly accurate. The digital home monitor that I use was $100 four years ago, so it should be cheaper now. It was tested against a sphygmomanometer (the sort doctors use) and it was always within the constraints of accuracy prescribed by the American National Standard for Electronic or Automated Sphygmomanometers. Look for that warranty, if you purchase a home monitor.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on several of subjects, but is currently involved with work on how to read blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, just go to our site at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

If you have reason to be worried about your blood pressure, you ought to start monitoring it yourself at home. High blood pressure or hypertension is known as ‘The Silent Killer’ because you cannot know whether you have it unless you measure it. You cannot guess or simply feel it. First of all, you ought to talk to your doctor and he will give you some figures, then you can purchase a blood pressure monitor and keep an eye on your condition.

When you are given your blood pressure reading by either your doctor or your machine, you will be given two numbers, say 120/80.

The first number is your systolic blood pressure. The systolic pressure is while your heart ‘beats’ or contracts, pumping your blood around you body.

The second number is while your heart expands, sucking blood back into itself. This is the diastolic blood pressure. These readings are of the blood pressure in your arteries.

There are four categories that your blood pressure readings can fall into. The first is normal and it is generally accepted that that means readings below 120/80. These numbers relate to a healthy person and can be achieved by almost anyone by keeping a healthy active lifestyle.

The second stage is known as ‘Prehypertension’ and relates to blood pressures between ‘normal’ and 140/90. This is the warning stage that you ought to be doing something to decrease your blood pressure. This could mean: a change of diet; drinking less alcohol, tea or coffee; losing weight; taking more exercise; smoking less or giving up smoking altogether.

The third stage is called ‘Hypertension Stage One’ and is reflected by figures between prehypertension and 160/100. If you get into this stage then you really have to see your physician and he will recommend significant changes to your lifestyle along the lines stated above or / and he will put you on tablets.

The fourth stage is called ‘Hypertension Stage Two’ and is anything above 160/100. This is fairly dangerous and your GP will want to get you to make radical alterations to your lifestyle and / or take medication which could be for the rest of your life. If you reach this stage go to your GP’s as soon as you can.

Whilst you are discussing your blood pressure with your doctor, be sure you tell him about any other medication you are taking, because some medication will raise blood pressure as well. Examples of medication that can raise your blood pressure are: anti-depressants, oral contraceptives and anti-flu or anti-cough treatments.

There are other things that can affect blood pressure too. lack of sleep is one. Do you have a new-born baby, a sick child, money problems, sleep apnoea or a snoring spouse that inhibit you from sleeping properly?

Fear, anger and anxiety are also reasons for high blood pressure. So is constipation, drinking too much and smoking. So, before you let your doctor prescribe medication to reduce your blood pressure, make certain he is aware of all your conditions.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on several of topics, but is currently involved with work on how to read blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our site at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

If you are worried about your blood pressure getting too high, you will almost certainly go to your GP to seek advice. Your medical doctor will invariably like you to attempt some lifestyle changes or / and take medication if this does not work. Making lifestyle alterations is the first tactic, but it does not always work. It normally does, but just not always.

However, it is vital to try to reduce your blood pressure, also called hypertension, before you go on medication. Lots of individuals are of the opinion that once your body relies on medication to moderate its hypertension, you will never be able to get yourself off the tablets. This is what my GP told me. Therefore, if it goes against your personal beliefs to take tablets, now is the time to do something about it.

The first thing to do is quit smoking and if you regularly drink too much alcohol, to cut back on that too, as both actions will have the effect of raising your blood pressure. Adopting these measures will also have knock-on effects for the remainder of your body. You will be fitter in general by not smoking at all and not drinking very much.

The next thing to do is to raise your level of daily activity. Do you take any exercise at all? If not, you will be surprised at how much two thirty-minute sessions of light exercise will help. Walk for thirty minutes in the morning and evening or replace one walk for thirty minutes gardening or swimming.

Diet is another manner of beating off the hypertension tablets. Salt, or sodium as it is often referred to, is a major cause of hypertension, usually because it encourages water retention. So, cutting back on salt or following a sodium depleted diet can have a major impact on your blood pressure.

Try substituting something else for salt: more pepper, a mixture of some other herbs or just leave it out altogether. After a couple of weeks you will not notice, except that everyone else’s cooking will taste very heavily over-salted! I did this quite successfully.

Add more fresh fruit and vegetables to your diet, because that will also reduce your hypertension. Eating less fat and red meat will also help. Stress is a main factor in hypertension, try to relax a bit more and possibly take up meditation or yoga.

If you are on medication, it is possible that the drugs are raising your blood pressure. If you think that this may be true, take your drugs to the GP and ask his opinion. You may be able to replace some of them. Some of the drugs that can have an adverse impact are: oral contraceptives, steroids, anti-depressants and cold / flu medicines.

You will notice that lots of these methods for decreasing your (possible) hypertension are related, so if you are an over-weight, inactive smoker who likes a drink, you can do a great deal by remedying that and your pressure will fall and you will become healthier in other ways as well.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on a number of subjects, but is currently involved with work on the cause of high blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, just go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

If you would like to check your blood pressure at home, you will require a blood pressure monitor. These monitors are not of necessity very costly but are within the budget of most households. There are basically two types of home monitor: aneroid and digital.

The aneroid monitor has a dial-type gauge and you read off your blood pressure statistics from that. It also has a cuff, which you wrap about your arm and which you pump up with a rubber bulb. The digital monitors also use a cuff, but it can be manually or automatically blown up. The results are read from a small screen. The choice is yours, but most individuals prefer the automatic digital monitor.

An aneroid home monitor is portable and requires neither batteries nor electricity so is rather cheaper than the digital version. It also has a stethoscope built into the cuff for simple monitoring. A problem could arise in noisy surroundings or if the user is hard of hearing. Someone with arthritic hands or fingers might have an issue squeezing the bulb as well.

Digital monitors are more expensive, yet they are more well-liked too despite that, because they can be completely automatic. The screen is also easier to read and some units come with a small printer to create a physical record of your readings. Other digital home monitors have a memory.

The one I use has three memories of thirty spaces each so that you can compare records for a month. Having three memories means that you can monitor and record readings for three separate people or three distinct time slots for one person for the period of a month. If you choose three time slots they could be morning, noon and night, as blood pressures differ during the day.

Whichever type of monitor you opt for, make certain that the cuff is the correct size for you. Be particularly cautious if you have very substantial or very thin arms. Check the age range for the device as well. Mine says for use only on people over 18 years, yet does not say why.

If electricity or batteries is ever likely to be a a problem, then the automatic digital home monitor may not be for you, although you may be able to rig it up to photovoltaic cells and exploit the sun’s energy.

Neither of these devices are a problem to use, when you know how, so make certain that the instruction book does not look as if it was translated by machine. It is naturally very important to know how to take precise readings and how to understand them. In order to check the accuracy of your machine it is worth taking it with on your next visit to your GP.

You can compare your readings against those of his sphygmomanometer, which is considered the gold standard of blood monitoring devices. Your GP will also be able to tell you what your systolic and diastolic pressures ought to be.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several of topics, but is currently involved with work on high blood pressure charts. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

Whether you are trying to reduce your high blood pressure or whether you are trying to stave of getting high blood pressure, there are a couple of things that you can do. However, just like giving up smoking or drinking, it means lifestyle alterations which are always very hard to instigate. Essentially, safely lowering high blood pressure means exercise, diet and altering behavior.

This piece will give tips for safely lowering high blood pressure, none of which present any risk to you unless I mention them in this article.

The first thing to do, if you are concerned about your blood pressure (BP), is to get a BP monitor. They are not expensive and they are very comforting. Sure, you can go to your doctor to have your BP checked, but there are reasons why this approach is not exact.

For instance, there is something called the ‘white coat effect’, which means that patients who are made uneasy by doctors can show a 25-50 point higher reading than is the actual case. However, you ought to take your BP monitor to your GP to check it with the one there.

Once you identify what your BP should be for your age and you have the ability to get an accurate measurement of your BP, you are in a position to check your progress in decreasing it.

The first thing to do is normalize your weight. In order to do this, you will almost certainly need to lose weight and to do this there are two tactics, both of which you ought to take. The first is exercise and the second is diet. The exercise element does not have to be strenuous – my medical doctor told me to walk thirty minutes each morning and each evening.

The diet part is the only advice I will give that requires checking with your GP. Sodium or table salt is positively linked to water retention, weight and high blood pressure. However, giving up salt can get perilous if you have certain complications (especially thyroid) or if you live in a hot country. Therefore, check the sodium diet with your GP.

If you smoke or drink alcohol to excess that will raise your BP. Perhaps it never did while you were younger, but as your body gets older, it definitely will. Smoking and drinking to excess frequently will raise your BP. No question of it.

Cut down on weighty foods like fatty meat. Not stop, but try to substitute more fresh vegetables and fruit. This can be integrated into your diet easily enough.

Mood affects your BP, so try to remain calm. This might mean taking up relaxation techniques such as meditation or yoga, but it could also only mean watching a film, going for a walk or listening to some classical music.

Swimming is very relaxing for me and lots of others too. It is a means of relaxing yet fighting the flab at the same time. Furthermore, coupled with some of the other suggestions for safely lowering high blood pressure might help keep you off tablets for the remainder of your life.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on a number of subjects, but is currently involved with work on high blood pressure charts. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

These days many individuals in their Forties and Fifties are being told that they have high blood pressure and that unless they induce major lifestyle changes soon, then they will have to take blood pressure tablets for the rest of their lives. The fact is, that once your body gets used to these tablets it is extremely hard to get off them.

Therefore, if you have been given this warning, take it seriously. The doctor’s advice can take different forms, but it usually encompasses: lose weight; stop smoking and drinking; take more exercise and eat less salt.

In the spirit of this latter piece of advice, I have put three low salt soup recipes from three different countries in this piece. I hope you enjoy them.

Recipe One: Germany

Two Bean Soup (Zwei Bohnensuppe) (Serves Four)

1 1/4 cups white beans, dry 1 cup cut green beans 1 green onion, diced 1 potato, peeled & diced 2 tbls unbleached flour

Garnish =================== 4 oz ham, chopped 1/4 cup celery,chopped 1 onion, yellow, diced 1 tbls unsalted butter (optional) 3/4 cup beef broth, unsalted 1/4 tsp pepper 1 parsley, sprig

The beans can be either fresh or frozen, but do not use canned. Boil the beans until softish; add the potato and continue to boil. Add the flour to thicken when the potato is cooked. Stir well. Serve in bowls and then add the garnish. Crispy bread is a good accompaniment.

Recipe Two: Ireland

Sorrel Soup (Serves Eight)

1 lb Sorrel 3 oz unsalted butter (or margarine) 1 large onion, chopped 2 tbsp flour (heaped) 2 1/2 l stock 2 tbsp breadcrumbs 1 pepper 2 egg yolks 150 ml cream

Wash the sorrel well and chop it up. Heat the butter or margarine in a saucepan and just soften the sorrel and onion in it. Sprinkle the flour on to the vegetables and mix well. Let it cook for around 1 minute. In the meantime bring the stock to the boil, then add to the pan. Add the breadcrumbs, add pepper to taste, and bring to the boil, then simmer for about 1 hour covered. (It can become liquidized at this point, if liked). Whisk the egg yolks with the cream and add a little of the hot soup to the mixture, stirring well; then add gradually to the soup pot, stirring well on the heat, being careful not to let it boil.

Recipe Three: Russia

Borsch (Serves eight)

1 cup navy beans, dried 2 1/2 lb beef, lean 1/2 lb slab bacon 10 cups cold water 1 bay leaf 8 whole peppercorns 2 cloves garlic 2 tblsp parsley, dried 1 carrot 1 celery stalk 1 red onion, big, chopped 1 tsp salt (optional) 8 beetroots for soup 2 beetroots, small 2 cups green cabbage, shredded 2 leeks, big, sliced 3 potatoes, cut into eighths 1 can (1 lb 13 oz) tomatoes 1 tbspn tomato paste 3 tbspn red wine vinegar 1 lb kielbasa (optional) 2 tbspn flour 1 tbspn butter, melted 1/2 cup sour cream (optional)

Cover beans with water and permit to soak overnight; cook until tender; drain; set aside. Place beef, bacon and water in large soup pot; bring to the boil. Skim fat from surface. Add bay leaf, peppercorns, garlic, parsley, carrot, celery, onion. Cover and simmer on a low heat for around 1 1/2 hours.

Scrub beetroots for soup and cook in boiling water until soft, around 45 minutes; drain and dispose of water; cool. Peel and cut each beetroot into eighths. Scrub small beetroots; grate; cover with water and soak.

Remove meat from soup; lay aside. Strain soup into another pot and add cooked beetroot, cabbage, leeks, potatoes, tomatoes, tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, beef and bacon.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes. Cut kielbasa into pieces and add with navy beans to soup. Simmer 20 minutes longer. Mix flour and butter together to form a paste. Stir into soup to thicken slightly. Strain raw beets, saving liquid yet discarding beetroots. Add beetroot liquid to soup.

Additional sugar or vinegar can be added for a sweeter or sourer flavour. Cut meat and place in individual soup bowls. Pour hot soup with vegetables on to meat. Garnish every serving with a spoonful of sour cream, if preferred.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on a number of topics, but is currently involved with work on high blood pressure charts. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.